Drugmakers are using this ad campaign to fight Washington on a hot-button issue

Martin Shkreli, former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals LLC, arrives before a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing on "Developments in the Prescription Drug Market Oversight" on Capitol Hill in Washington Thomson Reuters The drug industry is under attack in Washington. Drug-price increases, and in particular price gouging, are a hot topic with the House of Representatives holding hearings on the matter. It doesn't help that the No. 1 target of the public's ire chose to smirk and tweet his way through the hearings.

But despite its efforts to distance itself from Martin Shkreli, the drug industry as a whole is being dragged into the debate. "These tactics are not limited to a few 'bad apples,' but are prominent throughout the industry," Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) wrote last week in a memo, referring to the practice of jacking up drug prices.

The lobbying groups that oversee pharmaceutical companies' interests have their work cut out for them, and they've ramped up spending in response. According to the the Center for Responsive Politics companies that make drugs spent $145 million in 2015 on lobbying the government, up from $138 million in 2014.PhRMA campaign screenshot Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the pharmaceutical industry's largest trade group, spent $18.4 million on lobbying efforts in 2015 — its first spending increase since 2009 when spending peaked at over $26 million.

One place spending will go is an ad campaign. PhRMA said it plans to spend 10% more than it did in 2015 on ads that intend to show how the industry advances research and development for new medical treatments. The campaign will be aimed at lawmakers and other political influencers, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier. Here's one of the new ads. It doesn't directly address the issue of drug pricing, but rather focuses on the industry's role in developing new treatments for diseases like cancer and diabetes. This ad was released February 1:

PhRMA said the "We're Fighting Back" video and accompanying print ad is just the first round of material. More ads are expected to roll out later this year.

While the cost of bringing a new drug from the lab to the pharmacy — often more than $1 billion — is often offered as the justification for high prices in practice it doesn't seem to be a primary factor.